Lactantius — Divine Institutes 6.1
What was the duty of the task undertaken we have completed, the divine Spirit instructing and truth itself assisting: the cause of asserting and illuminating that truth our Lord himself laid on me together with knowledge and faith — without whom nothing can be known or explained. I come now to what is the summit and greatest part of this work: to teach by what rite or what sacrifice God ought to be worshiped. For that is the human's office, and in that alone the sum of things and the whole account of the blessed life consist, since we were formed and inspired by him not so that we might see sky and sun, as Anaxagoras thought, but so that with a pure and whole mind we might worship God, the craftsman of sun and sky. Although in the preceding books I have defended the truth as far as my modest talent allowed, it can shine out most of all from the rite itself as well. For that holy and singular majesty desires nothing else from the human than innocence alone: if anyone offers that to God, he will sacrifice piously enough, religiously enough.
But all, justice neglected, though stained with every outrage and crime, think themselves religious if they have bloodied temples and altars with victims' blood, if they have soaked the hearths with a pour of scented and aged wine. They even set out sacred banquets and choice feasts as if to offer something from them to those who will taste. Whatever is rare to the eye, whatever costly in work or scent, they judge pleasing to their gods not from any account of divinity, which they do not know, but from their own desires, and they do not understand that God does not need earthly wealth. For they know nothing but earth, and they weigh goods and evils by the sense and pleasure of the body alone. By that body's judgment they weigh religion as they arrange the acts of their whole life. And since they once turned away from contemplation of heaven and enslaved that heavenly sense to the body, they give the reins to lusts as if they will carry pleasure away with them, which they hurry to seize at every moment — though the mind ought to use the body's service, not the body the mind's. They likewise judge riches the greatest good: if they cannot reach them by good arts, they reach them by bad. They cheat, seize, strip, lie in wait, swear falsely; they have nothing measured or weighed, provided they glitter with gold, shine with silver, gems, clothes, pour wealth into a most greedy belly, and always walk through a parted crowd packed with herds of attendants. So bound and serving pleasures they quench the mind's vigor, and when they think they live most of all, they race most swiftly to death.
For as we taught in the second book, heaven's account is in the mind, but earth's in the body. Those who neglect the mind's goods and seek the body's dwell in darkness and death, which belong to earth and body, because life and light are from heaven. Since they lack that light by serving the body, they are far from understanding of divine things. The same blindness presses the wretched everywhere. For as they do not know who the true God is, so they do not know what the true cult is.
Latin
Quod erat officium suscepti muneris diuino spiritu instruente ac suffragante ipsa ueritate conpleuimus: cuius adserendae atque inlustrandae causam mihi et scientia et fides et ipse dominus noster inposuit, sine quo nec sciri quicquam potest nec explicari. uenio nunc ad id quod est summum operis huius et maximum, ut doceam quo ritu quoue sacrificio deum coli oporteat. id enim est hominis officium in eoque solo summa rerum et omnis beatae uitae ratio consistit, quandoquidem propterea ficti et inspirati ab eo sumus, non ut caelum uideremus et s ό lem, quod Anaxagoras putauit, sed ut artificem solis et caeli deum pura et integra. mente coleremus. quamuis autem praecedentibus libris pro ingenii mediocritate defenderim ueritatem, tamen ex ritu quoque ipso elucere uel maxime potest. nihil enim sancta et singularis illa maiestas aliut ab homine desiderat quam solam innocentiam: quam si quis obtulerit deo, satis pie, satis religiose litabit.
omnes autem neglecta iustitia cum sint omnibus flagitiis ac sceleribus inquinati, religiosos se putant, si templa et aras hostiarum sanguine cruentauerint, si focos odorati ac ueteris uini profusione madefecerint. quin etiam sacras dapes apparant et exquisitas epulas quasi aliquid inde libaturis offerunt. quidquid aspectu rarum, quidquid opere aut odore pretiosum est, haec grata esse diis suis non ex aliqua diuinitatis ratione, quam nesciunt, sed ex suis cupiditatibus iudicant nec intellegunt terrenis opibus deum non indigere. nihil enim sapiunt nisi terram bonaque et mala solius corporis sensu ac uoluptate perpendunt. huius arbitrio ut religionem ponderant, sic totius uitae suae acta disponunt. et quoniam se semel a caeli contemplatione auerterunt sensumque illum caelestem corpori mancipauerunt, libidinibus frena permittunt tamquam secum ablaturi uoluptatem, quam momentis omnibus capere festinant, cum animus ministerio corporis, non corpus ministerio animi uti debeat. idem maximum bonum iudicant opes: quas si bonis artibus adsequi non possunt, malis adsecuntur. fraudant rapiunt spoliant insidiantur abiurant, nihil i denique moderati aut pensi habent, dummodo auro coruscent, argento gemmis uestibus fulgeant, auidissimo uentri opes ingerant, stipati familiarum gregibus per dimotum populum semper incedant. sic aaaicti et sermentes uoiuptatibus mm uigoremque mentis extinguunt et cum uiuere se maxime putant, ad mortem concitatissime properant.
nam sicut in secundo libro docuimus, caeli ratio in animo, terrae autem in corpore est. qui bona neclegunt animi, corporis adpetunt, in tenebris ac morte uersantur, quae sunt terrae atque corporis, quia uita et lumen a caelo est. cuius quoniam expertes sunt corpori seruiendo, longe absunt ab intellectu rerum diuinarum. eadem miseros ubique caecitas premit. sicut enim qui sit uerus deus, ita qui sit uerus cultus ignorant.